You cannot be alive when you are dead (Hypocrisy)
by HadesIsLost
Summary: Valkyrie Cain is dead, Skulduggery Pleasant is missing and some thing new has been discovered in the Sanctuary.
1. Prologue

Valkyrie Cain sat in her room and pondered. She didn't really know what pondered meant but she decided it was a fitting word for what she was currently doing, seeing as she was sitting at her desk with her chin in her hand.

"Why are you doing that? Is your chin falling off?" Skulduggery Pleasant asked, his velvet voice marred by sarcasm.

"No, I was just thinking..." Valkyrie grumbled, spining her chair around to face away from him.

"Are you sure? Your chin does have a habit of falling off..."

"That was one time!" Valkyrie muttered, her teeth gritted.

Skulduggery chuckled and let the silence live a few more moments. "So, what exactly are we waiting here for?"

More silence.

Skulduggery sighed and pushed off from the wall he was leaning against to step up to Valkyrie. "Valkyrie?" He said, wondering why his partner had grown so still. Skulduggery tapped her on the shoulder and Valkyrie Cain crumbled in to ash.

(Sorry it's so short, but it is just a prologue! More to come.)


	2. Chapter one: Possibility

**You cannot be sure of the impossible (Possibility)**

(WARNING: Mild Dying of the Light spoilers.)

Elder Bespoke walked through the damp, colourless halls of the Roarhaven sanctuary, walking past Roarhaven mages that were equally damp and colourless. He walked in to the Medical Bay, ignoring the looks that burrowed in to him. He was searching for the Grand Mage, having heard whispers of a certain detectives partner perishing. He knew premature tears were pointless, so he waited to hear it from practically the only trustworthy source of information in the Sanctuary, Grand Mage Ravel.

He found Ravel sitting on a bed with a mudpack pressed to his left eye.

"What happened?" Ghastly demanded, stepping up to him.

"Well, Skulduggery punched me in the face and-" Ravel began, before Ghastly interjected.

"What happened to Valkyrie?" Ghastly noticed how Ravels face fell, and at that he looked away.

"Skulduggery won't tell us any thing, and all we found at Valkyrie's house was a pile of ash in her room. Obviously, we suspect that... that..." Ravel struggled to continue, and Ghastly made no attempt to help. "That the ashes were Valkyrie."

The colour drained from Ghastly's face, and Ravel quickly started talking again, "but untill Skulduggery speaks, we won't know for sure."

"Is there any point? If Skulduggery isn't speaking, then we all ready know it's true."

Just then, Tipstaff burst in, panting as if he had been running a long time.

"Grand Mage..." He gasps out, hands on his knees as he tries to regain his breath.

"What's wrong, Tipstaff?"

"Mr Pleasant... Mr Pleasant is gone."

(Super corny cliffhanger, sorry, but I felt the chapter needed to end here.)


	3. Chapter two: Plausibility

**You cannot pinpoint anger (Plausibility)**

"What the hell do you mean, gone?" Ravel yelled, jumping to his feet then immediately sat back down due to a particularly strong head rush.

"W-w-w-well" Tipstaff stuttered. "He just left, I tried to stop him but as usual he ignored me!"

Ghastly glanced at Ravel, then walked over to Tipstaff. "Did he say any thing before he left? Any thing at all?"

"Yes, he- he muttered some thing about an analysis, I believe."

"Right, well obviously he's gone back to the house." Ravel said, having recovered from the head rush.

"I'll go, maybe I can reason with him..." Ghastly trailed off, the doubt in his voice giving his tone an edge.

"Me too!" Ravel said eagerly, but Ghastly shook his head.

"No, you've got to stay here in case he comes back." Ghastly said decisively. "I hate to say it, but we have to get him in shackles before he can do any damage."

"All we can do is hope he doesn't kill any one." Ravel said, an uncharacteristically serious frown on his face. Ghastly and Tipstaff looked at him and he tried again. "All we can do is hope he doesn't kill too many people." They shook their heads and Ravel sighed. "All right... all we can do is hope that he doesn't reveal magic to masses. Better?" Ghastly smirked and Tipstaff nodded.

"Let's get a move on then." 

**Valkyrie**

The first thing Valkyrie consciously felt was how cold it was. The next was a sharp, tingling pain that covered her entire body. She sat up, blinking the sleep from her eyes.

"Skulduggery...?" She mumbled, sleep weighing down her words. What could she remember? She was in her room, with Skulduggery. Had she fallen asleep? Where was she? 

Where was Skulduggery? 

Her thoughts slowed and the last thing she heard was the crack that sounded out as her head hit the concrete floor. 

**Ravel**

"He isn't there? Well, this is great, isn't it. We're just going to have to go out and search for him." Ravel sighed, exasperated.

"He's basically fueled by anger at this point, and you know what they say..." Ghastly didn't continue.

"You cannot- hold on, Ghastly." Ravel turned to the person that had interrupted him. "Can I help you?"

"There's um... some thing in the hub for you."

(Really short chapters, I know, but I'm trying. I lost my inspiration but I am slowly clawing it back.)

(PS: Thank you so much for the nice reviews! They really help me pick up the slack.)


	4. Chapter three: Feasibility

**You cannot dream of what doesn't exist (Feasibility)**

(Okay, okay! It's here, you don't need to keep naggin' -3-)

Valkyrie awoke again, aware of the blaring headache throbbing at the back of her skull. She was thankfully more awake this time, so she was able to fully take in her surroundings.

"Hello?" She called out fruitlessly to the cold concrete walls. Where on earth was she? Could she recognize it? No, there was nothing to recognize. Smooth, cold concrete walls, concrete floor and a concrete ceiling. Completely unmemorable in a memorable way...

"Are you actually awake this time?" A voice echoed out from seemingly every where. It some how reminded her of an open flame, or a roaring fire.

"Who are you? Why can't I see you?" Valkyrie asked as she spun around to make sure the woman wasn't behind her.

"Well, if you could see me, that would ruin the surprise!" The voice called out again, some how different now, as if it was a different person speaking with the same voice."What surprise?" The invisible woman asked herself, it changed again, the tone laced with menace.

"Is some one else there?" Valkyrie shouted to get her attention.

"No, stupid girl, only me."

"Why does every bad guy call me stupid..." Valkyrie muttered to herself, crossing her harms accross her chest.

 **Ravel**

"What the hell is it?" Ravel demanded, walking up to the huge cement block, one story tall and the same in length, that had appeared in the hub of the Sanctuary.

"Well, we don't know," said Nebulous Cerebration, Ravel noted that when he looked at her he felt his thoughts slowing, becoming more dull, less defined. "It appears to just be cement. We've scanned it, there's nothing inside."

"So it's just pure concrete?"

"No, no, there is literally nothing inside. No oxygen, nothing." Nebulous held her clipboard to her chest, arms crossed over it. "It's like a void surrounded by a thin layer of rock."

"No note, no explanation? No one's come forward?" Ravel asked fruitlessly, all ready knowing that if there was he would have been told all ready.

"All we found was this, it was sitting right on top of it" she said, handing him a navy blue fedora.

"Skulduggery..." Ravel murmured.

(Seriously though, thank you so much for the support. I'm sorry this was late, been dealing with some issues but I promise, I won't delay this much again!)


	5. Chapter four: Inevitability

**You cannot stop the inevitable**

"Oh, so you know who left this here?" Nebulous asked, scrutinizing the hat.

"Of course..." Ravel murmured before he paused to think about something. "You're new here, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I came in from the Swiss sanctuary a week ago. Why?"

"You don't know who Skulduggery Pleasant is..." Ravel said it as a statement of fact, not a question. "Yet you should have at least heard of him, even in... Switzerland, was it?"

"I recognize the name, I suppose. Do you know why or how he would have left this?"

"Knowing Skulduggery, it was probably because he thought it was a good idea."

 **Skulduggery**

Skulduggery stared down over the cliff edge at the ice below him, his tie flapped in the wind and he made no move to correct it. He glared at the nothingness that spanned a million miles in front of him, knowing that below the seeming void was the portal to some thing far beyond what he could imagine. And if he couldn't fathom such a thing, he was sure no person could. Well, perhaps there were some, but they weren't exactly people.

"She's not dead..." he repeated for what seemed like the hundred millionth time.

Time seemed to pass slower here, as if the void was sucking in time itself.

Skulduggery thought about that possibility and tilted his head to the right slightly.

And then, Skulduggery jumped.

He dove head first towards the still sea, and, as he reached it, he fell through it and the ice made no noise, indifferent. Skulduggery would have scowled if he were possible of such facial movements, but as it was, he could only grin.

 **Valkyrie**

"Are you ever going to answer me?" she asked, her voice coarse and croaky. "Are you ever going to let me leave...?"

Despair was slowly making it's claim on her thoughts, laying waste to all the happiness and joy in her mind.

"I wish I could, but she would never let me. She would take over as soon as I moved a muscle to do so," the voice was kinder, less malicious, filled with regret.

"You could try," Valkyrie gasped out.

The room was silent again, and Valkyrie cried out wordlessly in hopelessness. How long had she been in here? She'd slept eight long sleeps, but did that count for any thing?

Did nothing count for any thing now?


End file.
